Great mount. All-in-one with a very nice polar scope routine (not quite Tak, but very easy and fairly accurate - though, when imaging, still need a little "somethin'" afterwards, of course). Handles a 15lb imaging rig very well and a 25lb visual rig with a long moment arm well as well.

Still don't have full numbers on tracking, but it guides well and accurately (for a mount in this price range), and before dialing it in (which, if it would be **** clear on Saturday -- I'm talkin' ta you Zeus! -- I'll finally get all the kinks unkinked), I can do 5 minutes guided, no sweat (granted, a 430mm FL scope, so, not real tough). I could probably get 10 so far, but didn't try. I'm going for 15 minutes on this thing when dialed in, and work from there (if possible).

It's very light (I can one-hand the mount head, granted, I'm 6'2", but I'm OLD and feeble, or, at least that's what my son says: "Get off the lawn you kids!"). I got the pier instead of the tripod, and it levels and is very solid.

As I said: it's all-in-one with GPS built in, nice HC (which warms itself, but DOES NOT make guacamole...one point against it). GREAT customer support, though there is a problem with the newest firmware's two-star-alignment, which they've almost got fixed up and onlined.

Hmm, not sure what else to say, other than, for a light GEM that's good bang for the buck, I chose the iEQ30 after much research.

Hope this helps,

Paul

Attached Files

Wow Paul,
Looks like the mount of my current dreams.
Thanks for the picture. First one i've seen in captivity.
I want to use this mount as a grab n go and this weighs about half of the nearest competion which is the Orion Sirius EQ-G GoTo.
How's it work with an autoguider?
Andy

It's very nice with the Lodestar and Borg 50mm guidescope I have. It's also very easy with most software, though I had terminal trouble with TheSkyX, for some reason. Might be the driver, which isn't specific to this mount (when dealing with TheSkyX). But MaxIm DL is a breeze, and TheSky6 works fine with it (though I only used that as a test).

I had the BEST time when I first got it (I'm re-submerging into amateur astronomy; first time since I was a kid), loading it up with the ES 152mm achro and zooming around finding more stuff in one hour then I would find in a week as a kid (by hand and star chart). Felt like cheating. So, great for grab-and-go...if you need an EQ mount for that (obviously, an AltAz mount might be more grabby-and-go-y). I would usually tweak the GoTo's once or twice a night for visual use, though I had one night where I had an 8.8mm ES 82 degree eyepiece in and was spot-on the whole evening.

Good luck with the mount and if ANYTHING isn't right, do get in touch with iOptron's support people - they're great. You never know when something slips through the QC cracks in China; a few little things happened on my iEQ30 (it was one of the very first) - a bolt between pier and mount didn't arrive (because I had the very first pier version), or just silly questions I had - they're there to help.

For the light load I'll be putting on it sounds like the perfect mount for me. Light weight and good tracking.
Can't touch this except for a lot more $ and weight. The only other goto mount I have is the AP1200 goto3 in the observatory. I've downloaded the pdf 44 page owners manual.
These iE30's will be flying off the shelves when Comet ISON shows up next December.
Andy

Andy - ain't an AP, but I think you'll find it does what you need it to, and is LIGHT.

There are a few people that have put up some good "mod" ideas for the iEQ45's, and I've been meaning to try them on the iEQ30 (rounding the ends of the Az bolts, etc.). Might be worthwhile to search those for ideas.

Paul, But it kind of looks like Optron copied AP's design and scaled it down. It's a good design after all. I'll be looking for some worth while minor mods. I just joined on a yahoo optron site. Most of the latest posts are about the iEQ45 but pretty much the same mount.